


A Bad Dream

by walkingonthestars



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cat Blanc - Freeform, Episode: s03 Chat Blanc, LadyNoir - Freeform, Post Cat Blanc, Post-Episode: s03 Chat Blanc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:00:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23662735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkingonthestars/pseuds/walkingonthestars
Summary: Ladybug tells Cat Noir about a "nightmare" she had. Takes place after the ending scene of Cat Blanc.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 13
Kudos: 182





	A Bad Dream

He didn’t know long they’d been sitting like this. It had to have been at least half an hour-- the sun had been setting when Ladybug sat down next to him, and now it was completely dark. They were still sitting in the same position-- her head on his shoulder, his temple pressed against her hair. Cat Noir hadn’t questioned it. It was clear she’d needed his company. And he didn’t want to risk her getting up and not doing it again. He’d had a pretty good day, so he didn’t necessarily need her affection today like he sometimes does, but it was always welcome. 

The only reason he moved was because he was pretty sure she’d actually fallen asleep in that position, and as nice it would be to just sit there the whole night, they did need to start their patrol soon.

When he leaned his head forward to look at her face, he was surprised to find her eyes open. Sensing his movement, Ladybug looked up at him, then shifted her weight so that she was no longer leaning on him. Cat Noir tried not to let out a whimper.

“I thought you fell asleep,” he said as he shifted his own weight to sit up straight again. 

“Nope, I’m awake,” Ladybug replied with the soft, girlish voice he loved so much. “Just thinking.”

His ears twitched, indicating his intrigue. “Can I ask about what?”

She didn’t respond. A feeling of concern twinged in Cat Noir’s head, and he turned to get a better look at her face. She didn’t look sad, thankfully-- she simply looked like she was debating with herself on whether she should actually tell him what was on her mind.

Despite his earlier fear that he would jinx himself out of receiving more affection, he elected to continue with a joke. “Does it have anything to do with your sudden attraction to me?” He batted his eyelashes at her, and with a giggle, she lightly slapped his shoulder.

“What, I can’t show appreciation for my partner once in a while?”

“Hey, I’m not complaining. Show all the appreciation you want.”

She sighed a very exaggerated sigh. Then she said, “it does have something to do with you, actually. Well, not really you, but…” The debating expression returned to her face, though this time she seemed to be trying to figure out how exactly to approach the subject. Eventually she seemed to settle on something, and she started talking.

"I… had a dream about you. Last night."

Cat Noir raised an eyebrow and smiled. "My lady's been dreaming about me?"

Ladybug rolled her eyes, then averted them, becoming more solemn. "It was actually more of a nightmare." 

"Ouch, I see how it is," Cat Noir said, putting a hand to his heart in mock indignation. When she didn't fire back with a retort, he put his hand down and continued with a softer voice. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Ladybug opened her mouth to speak, but didn't, seemingly trying to figure out what to say. After a few seconds she began to tell him, talking slowly. 

"So, it started out with me on top of the Tour Montparnasse and looking around at the city." She looked in front of her, at the Paris skyline. "It was a ghost town-- there was nobody there. Everything was white, and I guess the Seine had overflowed, because it was all flooded. The Eiffel Tower was knocked over, buildings were crumbling, stuff like that."

Cat Noir stayed quiet as she continued.

"I was staring at it all, wondering what had happened, when all of a sudden I heard someone singing. I looked up, and… it was you. Except--" she turned to look at his costume-- "you were wearing all white. Your hair was white, too. And your eyes were blue instead of green." 

Against his better judgement, Cat Noir tried to be lighthearted. "So I was Cat Blanc?"

Ladybug's eyes widened the tiniest bit. "Yeah, that's actually what you called yourself. Cat Blanc." She took a second to look into his eyes, as if making sure they were still green. Cat Noir stiffened under her gaze.

She eventually peeled her eyes away from him, looking down at her hands instead. "Anyways, you were talking to me, saying that you missed me, that you'd been lonely, but it-- I don't know-- it wasn't you. And then all of a sudden you tried to grab my earrings, and that's when I realized that you had been akumatized."

Cat Noir tried to picture the scene in his head. He sometimes wondered what it would be like if he got akumatized-- what would he look like? What would his reason have been? During his first few months as Cat Noir, he'd been under the impression that he and Ladybug, being miraculous holders, were somehow immune to akumatization. Then he had seen Chloé-- well, Queen Bee-- become Queen Wasp. He'd asked Plagg about it that night, who confirmed that miraculous holders could indeed be akumatized. And while he was still curious about what he'd be like as an akuma, he hoped that he'd never have to find out. Not that he'd even be able to remember it.

"So I was trying to figure out where your akuma went, but then you got angry, so I started running away, and then…" Ladybug stopped. She looked hesitant to tell him what happened next.

"You don't have to keep going," Cat Noir assured her.

Ladybug shook her head. "I was running away, and then… you said my name."

Cat Noir's eyes widened. "Your civilian name?"

"Yeah," Ladybug said, and sat for a few more seconds before continuing. "So you were running after me, and you were saying that, uh… you were saying that we had loved each other, and that Hawk Moth had somehow found out, and that's what led to everything being destroyed."

Cat Noir's heart skipped a beat. They had loved each other? Mutually? 

Then he mentally smacked himself. This is just a dream she had, he told himself. It's not real. It definitely didn't make it better that her subconscious apparently linked the idea of loving Cat Noir to the end of the world. 

He almost didn't register her speaking again.

"You kept saying that you needed my miraculous so you could change the past. I wouldn't let you take it, so then you sort of pushed me, I guess, into the water. We were a little closer to the water at this point," she quickly added, "on the Eiffel tower."

"Okay," Cat Noir said, then let her keep talking.

"So I was underwater, and I saw all these people on the streets. I swam closer to them, and then I realized…" she scrunched her face. "Have you ever seen those pictures of people in Pompeii who died in the Mount Vesuvius eruption?"

Cat Noir nodded. He remembered talking about that at school a few weeks back. He thought it was cool, if a bit morbid. Rose and Marinette, two of the more caring girls in his class, had gotten particularly bummed out by the photos they looked at in class.

"The people on the streets were like that. Just frozen-- statues. All in different positions, but all looking really scared or confused. And then I saw these two statues-- people-- next to each other, and swam over to them. One of them…" she cleared her throat and restarted the sentence. "One of them was Hawk Moth, and the other… was me."

She took a breath, then continued, speaking quickly now as if she just wanted to be done.

"I went back up to where you were and I asked what you did and you said you didn't mean to. And then you got really angry, and you called a Cataclysm, but it was huge. You said you were going to destroy the whole universe, so I finally said I'd give you my miraculous, and then you calmed down. Then I went up to you, and I took your bell--" she reached out and touched the bell on his costume as she said this-- "and I broke it. That's where the akuma was. So I purified the akuma and then you were back to normal."

She said this with a finality that must have meant the dream ended there. For a moment, the two heroes merely sat on the ledge, looking at each other, perfectly still. Cat Noir couldn't read how his lady was feeling. Exhaling, she turned and looked out at the skyline again. Was she mentally comparing it to the lonely white one in her dream?

Feeling the need to break the silence, Cat Noir once again ignored his better judgement. "Are all of your dreams like this?"

To his relief, she let out a soft laugh. "Thankfully, no." Her smile wavered slightly but didn't completely disappear as she said, "I'm sorry if this was all too heavy for you. It's just been weighing on me."

"I understand, Ladybug. It wasn't a problem." He leaned in closer to her and said, "I'm always here to listen."

"Me too, Cat Noir." She grabbed his hand. "Really, if there's ever anything making you mad or sad, please talk to me about it before anything has the chance to happen."

"Scared I'll go all Cat Blanc on you?" he said, nudging her gently. She giggled, pushing him away. Then she sobered. 

"I never actually found out what happened," she said quietly. "All I know is what you told me about us being in love, and I saw me and Hawk Moth standing next to that big scorch mark on the ground, but I don't know any of the details of what went down."

Cat Noir frowned. "It was a dream, m'lady. There's no rhyme or reason to it-- it's just your subconscious bullying you."

"Wha-- oh," she said, looking flustered. "You're right."

Another silence threatened to overtake them, so Cat Noir spoke again. "Well, at least it was a happy ending, what with me getting de-evilized." He thought for a moment. "Hey, did you do the miraculous cure and make Paris better again?"

He asked the question as a joke-- he'd been under the impression that the dream ended with Cat Blanc going back to normal. He didn't expect her to answer.

"No, I couldn't do it then. You still knew my name even after you were Cat Noir again."

He looked at her. "There was more?"

Ladybug blanched. "No! Well, yes. But--" she fidgeted with her hair. "It ended with me going somewhere else to do my miraculous ladybug. I don't know why-- dream logic, I guess."

"Huh," he said, his eyebrows knit together. He thought about the idea that his and Ladybug's love could cause the destruction of Paris.

"Dream logic," he repeated.

The pair sat for a few more moments, then got up. It was time to patrol.

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't seen those photos of the plaster casts of Mt. Vesuvius victims, they're very interesting. That's the first thing that came to my mind watching that scene in Cat Blanc for the first time.


End file.
